DHAKA, Jan 7: The activists of the Awami League-led alliance took to the streets and clashed with security forces, ignoring the government ban on meetings and processions in Dhaka on Sunday, the first day of the three-day countrywide blockade.

The clashes left over 100 people injured. The law enforcers detained several hundred picketers across the country, including 100 in Dhaka. The picketers damaged a number of vehicles and set some of them on fire.

They also halted a number of trains at different stations, disrupting the railway communications badly. The alliance announced that the blockade was meant to pressure the authorities over its demands for deferring the general elections and forcing a resignation from President Iajuddin Ahmed from the office of the chief adviser to the non-party caretaker government.

Dhaka was virtually cut off from the rest of the country as vehicles on long routes stayed off the roads. But a few city service buses and human haulers plied some routes while rickshaws occupied the city streets.

In Chittagong, loading and unloading of cargo at the Chittagong port was normal under the army’s supervision, but the goods could not be transported outside the port. The police did not allow the AL-led alliance’s activists to bring out processions or assemble at any place and chased the picketers in different places as the Dhaka city police commissioner, in a notification on Saturday, had slapped a total ban on holding rallies or gathering anywhere for an indefinite period.

But ignoring the ban, the alliance’s activists staged rallies and brought out processions in different parts of the capital.

Leaders and activists of the Awami League and its partners, including Jatiya Party, Liberal Democratic Party and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, arranged small rallies.

Officials in the Bangladesh Railway head-office said that train communications were halted at various stations in Dhaka, Pakshi and Lalmonirhat railway divisions. However, no untoward incident was reported.

In the Dhaka railway division, two trains were halted at Manikkhali and Islampur Bazaar stations. In Pakshi, five trains were halted at Abdullahpur, Atrai, Nandangachhi, Saidpur and Parbatipur stations and the picketers halted three trains in Lalmonirhat.